Ambrose shines, HRT swallows bitter donuts

After only his fourth Shell Championship Series round, Tasmanian Marcos Ambrose claimed his first victory in gruelling heat at Darwin's Hidden Valley circuit yesterday.

13 May 2001

After only his fourth Shell Championship Series round, Tasmanian Marcos Ambrose claimed his first victory in gruelling heat at Darwin's Hidden Valley circuit yesterday.

The round win, which came through consistent results in each of the three races, makes him the leading Ford driver in the series. It is only the fourth victory for any Ford driver in the 40 rounds contested since the beginning of the 1998 season.

The Holden Racing Team pair of Jason Bright and Mark Skaife filled the remaining podium positions, with Bright continuing to hold the lead in the series with 1,132 points (after scoring a fifth and two seconds), ahead of Skaife on 1,078.

Holden driver Russell Ingall, who won Saturday's race, is still third with 889 points while Ambrose is fourth on 840 and Greg Murphy, winner of the second of the three weekend races, is fifth on 835.

Ambrose qualified his Stone Brothers' prepared Pirtek Falcon in third place and then scored a second, fourth and third placings in the three races to secure the overall honours.

"I didn't anticipate how physically tough this round would be, it's very hot up here," 24-year-old Ambrose said. "This is up there with the best wins in my racing career. It's great to come home and win in the premier category. I am really proud."

Ambrose is having his first taste of V8 Supercar racing, having returned to Australia after a stint in European open-wheeler racing for the past couple of seasons.

"The most difficult part of the weekend was qualifying in 12th," said Ambrose. "But we got a great start in race one to get to fifth, and some great work in the pits by the team helped me move my way forward through the weekend."

Skaife's result came after finishing 14th in the first race, having suffered a stop-go penalty for jumping the start, and his strong recent form continued with a third placing in the second race and a win in the final race.

"After Saturday's controversial start, this is a really good result," said Skaife.

Race one winner, Russell Ingall, had tailshaft problems while leading within sight of the finish of the second race in his Castrol Commodore. His victory hopes dashed, he fought back to ninth in the third heat for sixth overall.

Greg Murphy was in a strong position for the round win after Ingall's demise, but he too fell victim to mechanical problems with a sticking throttle cable in the third race. After holding fourth place, he slipped to 12th with a gutsy drive in which he simply dipped the car's clutch and let the engine bounce off the rev-limiter as he braked for corners.

David Besnard found some form in the Caltex Ford, finishing fifth overall, after a disappointing start to the season in the second Stone Brothers Falcon.

Heavy penalties for after-race donuts

The Holden Racing Team has been fined $10,000 and both Mark Skaife and Jason Bright penalised 30 championship points after and unidentified team member's antics after the previous round, at Sydney's Eastern Creek.

Race stewards took a dim view of the fact that the team member had performed a series of "donuts" behind the pit buildings in a mock-up version of an HRT race car. The incident was seen by race officials and police.

The stewards concluded that the actions brought the sport of motor racing in to disrepute.

Skaife and Bright had just completed a 1-2 finish for the team at the circuit.

On the weekend, Hidden Valley race director, Tim Schenken and CAMS stewards convened on the matter with team manager Jeff Grech.

Grech admitted the factual basis of the allegation, concurred that the actions were serious and advised that the individual concerned would be subject to internal team discipline regardless of the outcome of the inquiry. He offered no defence to the substance of the allegation and the team will not be appealing the decision.

Kelly and Wills slug it out

The battle between the two fastest drivers in Formula Holden went right to the wire in the second race at Hidden Valley.

Reigning champion Simon Wills and Rick Kelly traded blows during the 17-lap race, with Wills eventually getting past the impressive teenager and taking the flag by just three-tenths of a second.

Stewart McColl was third, ahead of Alan Gurr, who had started from well down the grid after retiring his car in Race One.

The win capped off a strong weekend for Wills, who ended up with the round win and a new outright lap record for Hidden Valley.

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